Integrated analysis and reclamation of remote service resources

ABSTRACT

One or more databases contain data defining: a common authentication configuration for a plurality of remote services, and individual authentication configurations for each of the remote services, where a particular remote service of the remote services is associated with a particular individual authentication configuration. One or more server devices are configured to: (i) access, by way of the common authentication configuration and the particular individual authentication configuration, a master userid of the particular remote service; (ii) receive, from the particular remote service, a list of userids that are registered to the managed network and configured to use the particular remote service; (iii) receive, from the particular remote service, access data representing use of the particular remote service by the userids; (iv) determine, from the access data, most-recent access times of the userids; and (v) store, in the one or more databases, representations of the most-recent access times.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 16/230,628, entitled “INTEGRATED ANALYSIS AND RECLAMATION OFREMOTE SERVICE RESOURCES”, filed on Dec. 21, 2018, which is hereinincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

Enterprises may make use of various remote third-party services forpurposes of file sharing, workflow management, resource planning, and soon. These remote third-party services may also be referred to as remoteservices or cloud-based services. Typically, the enterprise is providedwith an administrative, or master, account for such a remote service,with which it can create further accounts for individual users.

Often, there is a per-user or per-user-block monthly, quarterly oryearly charge for use of each remote service. Furthermore, each suchuser account is a potential target for hacking or malware that couldcompromise information that the enterprise would rather keepproprietary. Consequently, the enterprise might find it desirable tolimit the number of user accounts to those users who actually needand/or actively use the remote service. But doing so is challengingbecause remote services often do not explicitly support ways ofaccurately determining the utilization of user accounts, and suchmechanisms can vary between remote services.

SUMMARY

The embodiments herein provide an integrated and extensible frameworkfor obtaining per-account utilization of remote services, andidentifying specific accounts that are candidates for removal orsuspension due to lack of activity. Using this framework, support foraccessing and evaluating remote services can be rapidly added to aremote network management platform. Thus, an enterprise can reducewasted resources and more proactively manage its users' access to remoteservices.

Each remote service may be configured with a master account for theenterprise, though which individual user accounts are controlled. Theenterprise may grant the remote network management platform limited orfull authority to use these master accounts to access the remoteservices. By way of such master accounts, information regarding theactivity of the user accounts may be obtained. From this information,the remote network management platform may automatically determine, foreach configured remote service, one or more user accounts that arecandidates for removal or suspension.

Herein, the term “userid” may refer to an account on a remote service.Thus, a “master userid” may refer to a master account, and an“individual userid” or “userid” may refer to a user account.

A first example embodiment may involve a computational instance of aremote network management platform, where the computational instance isassociated with a managed network. The computational instance mayinclude one or more databases containing data defining: a commonauthentication configuration for a plurality of remote services, andindividual authentication configurations for each of the remoteservices, where the remote services are hosted outside of the remotenetwork management platform and the managed network, and where aparticular remote service of the remote services is associated with aparticular individual authentication configuration of the individualauthentication configurations. The computational instance may alsoinclude one or more server devices configured to: (i) access, by way ofthe common authentication configuration and the particular individualauthentication configuration, a master userid at the particular remoteservice; (ii) receive, from the particular remote service, a list ofuserids that are registered to the managed network and that areconfigured to use the particular remote service; (iii) receive, from theparticular remote service, access data representing use of theparticular remote service by the userids; (iv) determine, from theaccess data, most-recent access times of the userids, where themost-recent access times respectively define when the userids were lastused to access the particular remote service; and (v) store, in the oneor more databases, representations of the most-recent access times ofthe userids.

A second example embodiment may involve accessing, by way of a commonauthentication configuration and a particular individual authenticationconfiguration, a master userid of a particular remote service of aplurality of remote services, where the master userid is associated witha managed network, and where one or more databases of the computingsystem contain data defining: the common authentication configurationfor the plurality of remote services, and individual authenticationconfigurations for each of the remote services. The second exampleembodiment may also involve receiving, from the particular remoteservice, a list of userids that are registered to the managed networkand that are configured to use the particular remote service. The secondexample embodiment may also involve receiving, from the particularremote service, access data representing use of the particular remoteservice by the userids. The second example embodiment may also involvedetermining, from the access data, most-recent access times of theuserids, where the most-recent access times respectively define when theuserids were last used to access the particular remote service. Thesecond example embodiment may also involve storing, in the one or moredatabases, representations of the most-recent access times of theuserids.

In a third example embodiment, an article of manufacture may include anon-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon programinstructions that, upon execution by a computing system, cause thecomputing system to perform operations in accordance with the firstand/or second example embodiment.

In a fourth example embodiment, a computing system may include at leastone processor, as well as memory and program instructions. The programinstructions may be stored in the memory, and upon execution by the atleast one processor, cause the computing system to perform operations inaccordance with the first and/or second example embodiment.

In a fifth example embodiment, a system may include various means forcarrying out each of the operations of the first and/or second exampleembodiment.

These, as well as other embodiments, aspects, advantages, andalternatives, will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artby reading the following detailed description, with reference whereappropriate to the accompanying drawings. Further, this summary andother descriptions and figures provided herein are intended toillustrate embodiments by way of example only and, as such, thatnumerous variations are possible. For instance, structural elements andprocess steps can be rearranged, combined, distributed, eliminated, orotherwise changed, while remaining within the scope of the embodimentsas claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic drawing of a computing device, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic drawing of a server device cluster, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts a communication environment involving a remote networkmanagement architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5A depicts another communication environment involving a remotenetwork management architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 6 depicts an architecture for supporting computational instanceaccess to remote services, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 7 depicts a web-based interface for configuring an integrationbetween a computational instance and a file sharing service, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 8 depicts an event log of a file sharing service, in accordancewith example embodiments.

FIG. 9 depicts a web-based interface for displaying userid activityrelated to a file sharing service, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 10 depicts a framework for integration between a computationalinstance and remote services, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods, devices, and systems are described herein. It should beunderstood that the words “example” and “exemplary” are used herein tomean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodimentor feature described herein as being an “example” or “exemplary” is notnecessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otherembodiments or features unless stated as such. Thus, other embodimentscan be utilized and other changes can be made without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein.

Accordingly, the example embodiments described herein are not meant tobe limiting. It will be readily understood that the aspects of thepresent disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated inthe figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, anddesigned in a wide variety of different configurations. For example, theseparation of features into “client” and “server” components may occurin a number of ways.

Further, unless context suggests otherwise, the features illustrated ineach of the figures may be used in combination with one another. Thus,the figures should be generally viewed as component aspects of one ormore overall embodiments, with the understanding that not allillustrated features are necessary for each embodiment.

Additionally, any enumeration of elements, blocks, or steps in thisspecification or the claims is for purposes of clarity. Thus, suchenumeration should not be interpreted to require or imply that theseelements, blocks, or steps adhere to a particular arrangement or arecarried out in a particular order.

I. Introduction

A large enterprise is a complex entity with many interrelatedoperations. Some of these are found across the enterprise, such as humanresources (HR), supply chain, information technology (IT), and finance.However, each enterprise also has its own unique operations that provideessential capabilities and/or create competitive advantages.

To support widely-implemented operations, enterprises typically useoff-the-shelf software applications, such as customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) and human capital management (HCM) packages. However,they may also need custom software applications to meet their own uniquerequirements. A large enterprise often has dozens or hundreds of thesecustom software applications. Nonetheless, the advantages provided bythe embodiments herein are not limited to large enterprises and may beapplicable to an enterprise, or any other type of organization, of anysize.

Many such software applications are developed by individual departmentswithin the enterprise. These range from simple spreadsheets tocustom-built software tools and databases. But the proliferation ofsiloed custom software applications has numerous disadvantages. Itnegatively impacts an enterprise's ability to run and grow itsoperations, innovate, and meet regulatory requirements. The enterprisemay find it difficult to integrate, streamline and enhance itsoperations due to lack of a single system that unifies its subsystemsand data.

To efficiently create custom applications, enterprises would benefitfrom a remotely-hosted application platform that eliminates unnecessarydevelopment complexity. The goal of such a platform would be to reducetime-consuming, repetitive application development tasks so thatsoftware engineers and individuals in other roles can focus ondeveloping unique, high-value features.

In order to achieve this goal, the concept of Application Platform as aService (aPaaS) is introduced, to intelligently automate workflowsthroughout the enterprise. An aPaaS system is hosted remotely from theenterprise, but may access data, applications, and services within theenterprise by way of secure connections. Such an aPaaS system may have anumber of advantageous capabilities and characteristics. Theseadvantages and characteristics may be able to improve the enterprise'soperations and workflow for IT, HR, CRM, customer service, applicationdevelopment, and security.

The aPaaS system may support development and execution ofmodel-view-controller (MVC) applications. MVC applications divide theirfunctionality into three interconnected parts (model, view, andcontroller) in order to isolate representations of information from themanner in which the information is presented to the user, therebyallowing for efficient code reuse and parallel development. Theseapplications may be web-based, and offer create, read, update, delete(CRUD) capabilities. This allows new applications to be built on acommon application infrastructure.

The aPaaS system may support standardized application components, suchas a standardized set of widgets for graphical user interface (GUI)development. In this way, applications built using the aPaaS system havea common look and feel. Other software components and modules may bestandardized as well. In some cases, this look and feel can be brandedor skinned with an enterprise's custom logos and/or color schemes.

The aPaaS system may support the ability to configure the behavior ofapplications using metadata. This allows application behaviors to berapidly adapted to meet specific needs. Such an approach reducesdevelopment time and increases flexibility. Further, the aPaaS systemmay support GUI tools that facilitate metadata creation and management,thus reducing errors in the metadata.

The aPaaS system may support clearly-defined interfaces betweenapplications, so that software developers can avoid unwantedinter-application dependencies. Thus, the aPaaS system may implement aservice layer in which persistent state information and other data arestored.

The aPaaS system may support a rich set of integration features so thatthe applications thereon can interact with legacy applications andthird-party applications. For instance, the aPaaS system may support acustom employee-onboarding system that integrates with legacy HR, IT,and accounting systems.

The aPaaS system may support enterprise-grade security. Furthermore,since the aPaaS system may be remotely hosted, it should also utilizesecurity procedures when it interacts with systems in the enterprise orthird-party networks and services hosted outside of the enterprise. Forexample, the aPaaS system may be configured to share data amongst theenterprise and other parties to detect and identify common securitythreats.

Other features, functionality, and advantages of an aPaaS system mayexist. This description is for purpose of example and is not intended tobe limiting.

As an example of the aPaaS development process, a software developer maybe tasked to create a new application using the aPaaS system. First, thedeveloper may define the data model, which specifies the types of datathat the application uses and the relationships therebetween. Then, viaa GUI of the aPaaS system, the developer enters (e.g., uploads) the datamodel. The aPaaS system automatically creates all of the correspondingdatabase tables, fields, and relationships, which can then be accessedvia an object-oriented services layer.

In addition, the aPaaS system can also build a fully-functional MVCapplication with client-side interfaces and server-side CRUD logic. Thisgenerated application may serve as the basis of further development forthe user. Advantageously, the developer does not have to spend a largeamount of time on basic application functionality. Further, since theapplication may be web-based, it can be accessed from anyInternet-enabled client device. Alternatively or additionally, a localcopy of the application may be able to be accessed, for instance, whenInternet service is not available.

The aPaaS system may also support a rich set of pre-definedfunctionality that can be added to applications. These features includesupport for searching, email, templating, workflow design, reporting,analytics, social media, scripting, mobile-friendly output, andcustomized GUIs.

The following embodiments describe architectural and functional aspectsof example aPaaS systems, as well as the features and advantagesthereof.

II. Example Computing Devices and Cloud-Based Computing Environments

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram exemplifying a computing device100, illustrating some of the components that could be included in acomputing device arranged to operate in accordance with the embodimentsherein. Computing device 100 could be a client device (e.g., a deviceactively operated by a user), a server device (e.g., a device thatprovides computational services to client devices), or some other typeof computational platform. Some server devices may operate as clientdevices from time to time in order to perform particular operations, andsome client devices may incorporate server features.

In this example, computing device 100 includes processor 102, memory104, network interface 106, and an input/output unit 108, all of whichmay be coupled by a system bus 110 or a similar mechanism. In someembodiments, computing device 100 may include other components and/orperipheral devices (e.g., detachable storage, printers, and so on).

Processor 102 may be one or more of any type of computer processingelement, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a co-processor (e.g.,a mathematics, graphics, or encryption co-processor), a digital signalprocessor (DSP), a network processor, and/or a form of integratedcircuit or controller that performs processor operations. In some cases,processor 102 may be one or more single-core processors. In other cases,processor 102 may be one or more multi-core processors with multipleindependent processing units. Processor 102 may also include registermemory for temporarily storing instructions being executed and relateddata, as well as cache memory for temporarily storing recently-usedinstructions and data.

Memory 104 may be any form of computer-usable memory, including but notlimited to random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), andnon-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory, hard disk drives, solid statedrives, compact discs (CDs), digital video discs (DVDs), and/or tapestorage). Thus, memory 104 represents both main memory units, as well aslong-term storage. Other types of memory may include biological memory.

Memory 104 may store program instructions and/or data on which programinstructions may operate. By way of example, memory 104 may store theseprogram instructions on a non-transitory, computer-readable medium, suchthat the instructions are executable by processor 102 to carry out anyof the methods, processes, or operations disclosed in this specificationor the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, memory 104 may include firmware 104A, kernel 104B,and/or applications 104C. Firmware 104A may be program code used to bootor otherwise initiate some or all of computing device 100. Kernel 104Bmay be an operating system, including modules for memory management,scheduling and management of processes, input/output, and communication.Kernel 104B may also include device drivers that allow the operatingsystem to communicate with the hardware modules (e.g., memory units,networking interfaces, ports, and busses), of computing device 100.Applications 104C may be one or more user-space software programs, suchas web browsers or email clients, as well as any software libraries usedby these programs. Memory 104 may also store data used by these andother programs and applications.

Network interface 106 may take the form of one or more wirelineinterfaces, such as Ethernet (e.g., Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, andso on). Network interface 106 may also support communication over one ormore non-Ethernet media, such as coaxial cables or power lines, or overwide-area media, such as Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) ordigital subscriber line (DSL) technologies. Network interface 106 mayadditionally take the form of one or more wireless interfaces, such asIEEE 802.11 (Wifi), BLUETOOTH®, global positioning system (GPS), or awide-area wireless interface. However, other forms of physical layerinterfaces and other types of standard or proprietary communicationprotocols may be used over network interface 106. Furthermore, networkinterface 106 may comprise multiple physical interfaces. For instance,some embodiments of computing device 100 may include Ethernet,BLUETOOTH®, and Wifi interfaces.

Input/output unit 108 may facilitate user and peripheral deviceinteraction with computing device 100. Input/output unit 108 may includeone or more types of input devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, and so on. Similarly, input/output unit 108 may include one ormore types of output devices, such as a screen, monitor, printer, and/orone or more light emitting diodes (LEDs). Additionally or alternatively,computing device 100 may communicate with other devices using auniversal serial bus (USB) or high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI) port interface, for example.

In some embodiments, one or more computing devices like computing device100 may be deployed to support an aPaaS architecture. The exact physicallocation, connectivity, and configuration of these computing devices maybe unknown and/or unimportant to client devices. Accordingly, thecomputing devices may be referred to as “cloud-based” devices that maybe housed at various remote data center locations.

FIG. 2 depicts a cloud-based server cluster 200 in accordance withexample embodiments. In FIG. 2, operations of a computing device (e.g.,computing device 100) may be distributed between server devices 202,data storage 204, and routers 206, all of which may be connected bylocal cluster network 208. The number of server devices 202, datastorages 204, and routers 206 in server cluster 200 may depend on thecomputing task(s) and/or applications assigned to server cluster 200.

For example, server devices 202 can be configured to perform variouscomputing tasks of computing device 100. Thus, computing tasks can bedistributed among one or more of server devices 202. To the extent thatthese computing tasks can be performed in parallel, such a distributionof tasks may reduce the total time to complete these tasks and return aresult. For purpose of simplicity, both server cluster 200 andindividual server devices 202 may be referred to as a “server device.”This nomenclature should be understood to imply that one or moredistinct server devices, data storage devices, and cluster routers maybe involved in server device operations.

Data storage 204 may be data storage arrays that include drive arraycontrollers configured to manage read and write access to groups of harddisk drives and/or solid state drives. The drive array controllers,alone or in conjunction with server devices 202, may also be configuredto manage backup or redundant copies of the data stored in data storage204 to protect against drive failures or other types of failures thatprevent one or more of server devices 202 from accessing units of datastorage 204. Other types of memory aside from drives may be used.

Routers 206 may include networking equipment configured to provideinternal and external communications for server cluster 200. Forexample, routers 206 may include one or more packet-switching and/orrouting devices (including switches and/or gateways) configured toprovide (i) network communications between server devices 202 and datastorage 204 via local cluster network 208, and/or (ii) networkcommunications between the server cluster 200 and other devices viacommunication link 210 to network 212.

Additionally, the configuration of routers 206 can be based at least inpart on the data communication requirements of server devices 202 anddata storage 204, the latency and throughput of the local clusternetwork 208, the latency, throughput, and cost of communication link210, and/or other factors that may contribute to the cost, speed,fault-tolerance, resiliency, efficiency and/or other design goals of thesystem architecture.

As a possible example, data storage 204 may include any form ofdatabase, such as a structured query language (SQL) database. Varioustypes of data structures may store the information in such a database,including but not limited to tables, arrays, lists, trees, and tuples.Furthermore, any databases in data storage 204 may be monolithic ordistributed across multiple physical devices.

Server devices 202 may be configured to transmit data to and receivedata from data storage 204. This transmission and retrieval may take theform of SQL queries or other types of database queries, and the outputof such queries, respectively. Additional text, images, video, and/oraudio may be included as well. Furthermore, server devices 202 mayorganize the received data into web page representations. Such arepresentation may take the form of a markup language, such as thehypertext markup language (HTML), the extensible markup language (XML),or some other standardized or proprietary format. Moreover, serverdevices 202 may have the capability of executing various types ofcomputerized scripting languages, such as but not limited to Perl,Python, PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP),JavaScript, and so on. Computer program code written in these languagesmay facilitate the providing of web pages to client devices, as well asclient device interaction with the web pages.

III. Example Remote Network Management Architecture

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments. This architecture includes three maincomponents, managed network 300, remote network management platform 320,and third-party networks 340, all connected by way of Internet 350.

Managed network 300 may be, for example, an enterprise network used byan entity for computing and communications tasks, as well as storage ofdata. Thus, managed network 300 may include client devices 302, serverdevices 304, routers 306, virtual machines 308, firewall 310, and/orproxy servers 312. Client devices 302 may be embodied by computingdevice 100, server devices 304 may be embodied by computing device 100or server cluster 200, and routers 306 may be any type of router,switch, or gateway.

Virtual machines 308 may be embodied by one or more of computing device100 or server cluster 200. In general, a virtual machine is an emulationof a computing system, and mimics the functionality (e.g., processor,memory, and communication resources) of a physical computer. Onephysical computing system, such as server cluster 200, may support up tothousands of individual virtual machines. In some embodiments, virtualmachines 308 may be managed by a centralized server device orapplication that facilitates allocation of physical computing resourcesto individual virtual machines, as well as performance and errorreporting. Enterprises often employ virtual machines in order toallocate computing resources in an efficient, as needed fashion.Providers of virtualized computing systems include VMWARE® andMICROSOFT®.

Firewall 310 may be one or more specialized routers or server devicesthat protect managed network 300 from unauthorized attempts to accessthe devices, applications, and services therein, while allowingauthorized communication that is initiated from managed network 300.Firewall 310 may also provide intrusion detection, web filtering, virusscanning, application-layer gateways, and other applications orservices. In some embodiments not shown in FIG. 3, managed network 300may include one or more virtual private network (VPN) gateways withwhich it communicates with remote network management platform 320 (seebelow).

Managed network 300 may also include one or more proxy servers 312. Anembodiment of proxy servers 312 may be a server device that facilitatescommunication and movement of data between managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320, and third-party networks 340. Inparticular, proxy servers 312 may be able to establish and maintainsecure communication sessions with one or more computational instancesof remote network management platform 320. By way of such a session,remote network management platform 320 may be able to discover andmanage aspects of the architecture and configuration of managed network300 and its components. Possibly with the assistance of proxy servers312, remote network management platform 320 may also be able to discoverand manage aspects of third-party networks 340 that are used by managednetwork 300.

Firewalls, such as firewall 310, typically deny all communicationsessions that are incoming by way of Internet 350, unless such a sessionwas ultimately initiated from behind the firewall (i.e., from a deviceon managed network 300) or the firewall has been explicitly configuredto support the session. By placing proxy servers 312 behind firewall 310(e.g., within managed network 300 and protected by firewall 310), proxyservers 312 may be able to initiate these communication sessions throughfirewall 310. Thus, firewall 310 might not have to be specificallyconfigured to support incoming sessions from remote network managementplatform 320, thereby avoiding potential security risks to managednetwork 300.

In some cases, managed network 300 may consist of a few devices and asmall number of networks. In other deployments, managed network 300 mayspan multiple physical locations and include hundreds of networks andhundreds of thousands of devices. Thus, the architecture depicted inFIG. 3 is capable of scaling up or down by orders of magnitude.

Furthermore, depending on the size, architecture, and connectivity ofmanaged network 300, a varying number of proxy servers 312 may bedeployed therein. For example, each one of proxy servers 312 may beresponsible for communicating with remote network management platform320 regarding a portion of managed network 300. Alternatively oradditionally, sets of two or more proxy servers may be assigned to sucha portion of managed network 300 for purposes of load balancing,redundancy, and/or high availability.

Remote network management platform 320 is a hosted environment thatprovides aPaaS services to users, particularly to the operators ofmanaged network 300. These services may take the form of web-basedportals, for instance. Thus, a user can securely access remote networkmanagement platform 320 from, for instance, client devices 302, orpotentially from a client device outside of managed network 300. By wayof the web-based portals, users may design, test, and deployapplications, generate reports, view analytics, and perform other tasks.

As shown in FIG. 3, remote network management platform 320 includes fourcomputational instances 322, 324, 326, and 328. Each of these instancesmay represent one or more server devices and/or one or more databasesthat provide a set of web portals, services, and applications (e.g., awholly-functioning aPaaS system) available to a particular customer. Insome cases, a single customer may use multiple computational instances.For example, managed network 300 may be an enterprise customer of remotenetwork management platform 320, and may use computational instances322, 324, and 326. The reason for providing multiple instances to onecustomer is that the customer may wish to independently develop, test,and deploy its applications and services. Thus, computational instance322 may be dedicated to application development related to managednetwork 300, computational instance 324 may be dedicated to testingthese applications, and computational instance 326 may be dedicated tothe live operation of tested applications and services. A computationalinstance may also be referred to as a hosted instance, a remoteinstance, a customer instance, or by some other designation. Anyapplication deployed onto a computational instance may be a scopedapplication, in that its access to databases within the computationalinstance can be restricted to certain elements therein (e.g., one ormore particular database tables or particular rows with one or moredatabase tables).

For purpose of clarity, the disclosure herein refers to the physicalhardware, software, and arrangement thereof as a “computationalinstance.” Note that users may colloquially refer to the graphical userinterfaces provided thereby as “instances.” But unless it is definedotherwise herein, a “computational instance” is a computing systemdisposed within remote network management platform 320.

The multi-instance architecture of remote network management platform320 is in contrast to conventional multi-tenant architectures, overwhich multi-instance architectures exhibit several advantages. Inmulti-tenant architectures, data from different customers (e.g.,enterprises) are comingled in a single database. While these customers'data are separate from one another, the separation is enforced by thesoftware that operates the single database. As a consequence, a securitybreach in this system may impact all customers' data, creatingadditional risk, especially for entities subject to governmental,healthcare, and/or financial regulation. Furthermore, any databaseoperations that impact one customer will likely impact all customerssharing that database. Thus, if there is an outage due to hardware orsoftware errors, this outage affects all such customers. Likewise, ifthe database is to be upgraded to meet the needs of one customer, itwill be unavailable to all customers during the upgrade process. Often,such maintenance windows will be long, due to the size of the shareddatabase.

In contrast, the multi-instance architecture provides each customer withits own database in a dedicated computing instance. This preventscomingling of customer data, and allows each instance to beindependently managed. For example, when one customer's instanceexperiences an outage due to errors or an upgrade, other computationalinstances are not impacted. Maintenance down time is limited because thedatabase only contains one customer's data. Further, the simpler designof the multi-instance architecture allows redundant copies of eachcustomer database and instance to be deployed in a geographicallydiverse fashion. This facilitates high availability, where the liveversion of the customer's instance can be moved when faults are detectedor maintenance is being performed.

In some embodiments, remote network management platform 320 may includeone or more central instances, controlled by the entity that operatesthis platform. Like a computational instance, a central instance mayinclude some number of physical or virtual servers and database devices.Such a central instance may serve as a repository for data that can beshared amongst at least some of the computational instances. Forinstance, definitions of common security threats that could occur on thecomputational instances, software packages that are commonly discoveredon the computational instances, and/or an application store forapplications that can be deployed to the computational instances mayreside in a central instance. Computational instances may communicatewith central instances by way of well-defined interfaces in order toobtain this data.

In order to support multiple computational instances in an efficientfashion, remote network management platform 320 may implement aplurality of these instances on a single hardware platform. For example,when the aPaaS system is implemented on a server cluster such as servercluster 200, it may operate a virtual machine that dedicates varyingamounts of computational, storage, and communication resources toinstances. But full virtualization of server cluster 200 might not benecessary, and other mechanisms may be used to separate instances. Insome examples, each instance may have a dedicated account and one ormore dedicated databases on server cluster 200. Alternatively,computational instance 322 may span multiple physical devices.

In some cases, a single server cluster of remote network managementplatform 320 may support multiple independent enterprises. Furthermore,as described below, remote network management platform 320 may includemultiple server clusters deployed in geographically diverse data centersin order to facilitate load balancing, redundancy, and/or highavailability.

Third-party networks 340 may be remote server devices (e.g., a pluralityof server clusters such as server cluster 200) that can be used foroutsourced computational, data storage, communication, and servicehosting operations. These servers may be virtualized (i.e., the serversmay be virtual machines). Examples of third-party networks 340 mayinclude AMAZON WEB SERVICES® and MICROSOFT® Azure. Like remote networkmanagement platform 320, multiple server clusters supporting third-partynetworks 340 may be deployed at geographically diverse locations forpurposes of load balancing, redundancy, and/or high availability.

Managed network 300 may use one or more of third-party networks 340 todeploy applications and services to its clients and customers. Forinstance, if managed network 300 provides online music streamingservices, third-party networks 340 may store the music files and provideweb interface and streaming capabilities. In this way, the enterprise ofmanaged network 300 does not have to build and maintain its own serversfor these operations.

Remote network management platform 320 may include modules thatintegrate with third-party networks 340 to expose virtual machines andmanaged services therein to managed network 300. The modules may allowusers to request virtual resources and provide flexible reporting forthird-party networks 340. In order to establish this functionality, auser from managed network 300 might first establish an account withthird-party networks 340, and request a set of associated resources.Then, the user may enter the account information into the appropriatemodules of remote network management platform 320. These modules maythen automatically discover the manageable resources in the account, andalso provide reports related to usage, performance, and billing.

Internet 350 may represent a portion of the global Internet. However,Internet 350 may alternatively represent a different type of network,such as a private wide-area or local-area packet-switched network.

FIG. 4 further illustrates the communication environment between managednetwork 300 and computational instance 322, and introduces additionalfeatures and alternative embodiments. In FIG. 4, computational instance322 is replicated across data centers 400A and 400B. These data centersmay be geographically distant from one another, perhaps in differentcities or different countries. Each data center includes supportequipment that facilitates communication with managed network 300, aswell as remote users.

In data center 400A, network traffic to and from external devices flowseither through VPN gateway 402A or firewall 404A. VPN gateway 402A maybe peered with VPN gateway 412 of managed network 300 by way of asecurity protocol such as Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC) orTransport Layer Security (TLS). Firewall 404A may be configured to allowaccess from authorized users, such as user 414 and remote user 416, andto deny access to unauthorized users. By way of firewall 404A, theseusers may access computational instance 322, and possibly othercomputational instances. Load balancer 406A may be used to distributetraffic amongst one or more physical or virtual server devices that hostcomputational instance 322. Load balancer 406A may simplify user accessby hiding the internal configuration of data center 400A, (e.g.,computational instance 322) from client devices. For instance, ifcomputational instance 322 includes multiple physical or virtualcomputing devices that share access to multiple databases, load balancer406A may distribute network traffic and processing tasks across thesecomputing devices and databases so that no one computing device ordatabase is significantly busier than the others. In some embodiments,computational instance 322 may include VPN gateway 402A, firewall 404A,and load balancer 406A.

Data center 400B may include its own versions of the components in datacenter 400A. Thus, VPN gateway 402B, firewall 404B, and load balancer406B may perform the same or similar operations as VPN gateway 402A,firewall 404A, and load balancer 406A, respectively. Further, by way ofreal-time or near-real-time database replication and/or otheroperations, computational instance 322 may exist simultaneously in datacenters 400A and 400B.

Data centers 400A and 400B as shown in FIG. 4 may facilitate redundancyand high availability. In the configuration of FIG. 4, data center 400Ais active and data center 400B is passive. Thus, data center 400A isserving all traffic to and from managed network 300, while the versionof computational instance 322 in data center 400B is being updated innear-real-time. Other configurations, such as one in which both datacenters are active, may be supported.

Should data center 400A fail in some fashion or otherwise becomeunavailable to users, data center 400B can take over as the active datacenter. For example, domain name system (DNS) servers that associate adomain name of computational instance 322 with one or more InternetProtocol (IP) addresses of data center 400A may re-associate the domainname with one or more IP addresses of data center 400B. After thisre-association completes (which may take less than one second or severalseconds), users may access computational instance 322 by way of datacenter 400B.

FIG. 4 also illustrates a possible configuration of managed network 300.As noted above, proxy servers 312 and user 414 may access computationalinstance 322 through firewall 310. Proxy servers 312 may also accessconfiguration items 410. In FIG. 4, configuration items 410 may refer toany or all of client devices 302, server devices 304, routers 306, andvirtual machines 308, any applications or services executing thereon, aswell as relationships between devices, applications, and services. Thus,the term “configuration items” may be shorthand for any physical orvirtual device, or any application or service remotely discoverable ormanaged by computational instance 322, or relationships betweendiscovered devices, applications, and services. Configuration items maybe represented in a configuration management database (CMDB) ofcomputational instance 322.

As noted above, VPN gateway 412 may provide a dedicated VPN to VPNgateway 402A. Such a VPN may be helpful when there is a significantamount of traffic between managed network 300 and computational instance322, or security policies otherwise suggest or require use of a VPNbetween these sites. In some embodiments, any device in managed network300 and/or computational instance 322 that directly communicates via theVPN is assigned a public IP address. Other devices in managed network300 and/or computational instance 322 may be assigned private IPaddresses (e.g., IP addresses selected from the 10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255or 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 ranges, represented in shorthand assubnets 10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16, respectively).

IV. Example Device, Application, and Service Discovery

In order for remote network management platform 320 to administer thedevices, applications, and services of managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320 may first determine what devices arepresent in managed network 300, the configurations and operationalstatuses of these devices, and the applications and services provided bythe devices, and well as the relationships between discovered devices,applications, and services. As noted above, each device, application,service, and relationship may be referred to as a configuration item.The process of defining configuration items within managed network 300is referred to as discovery, and may be facilitated at least in part byproxy servers 312.

For purpose of the embodiments herein, an “application” may refer to oneor more processes, threads, programs, client modules, server modules, orany other software that executes on a device or group of devices. A“service” may refer to a high-level capability provided by multipleapplications executing on one or more devices working in conjunctionwith one another. For example, a high-level web service may involvemultiple web application server threads executing on one device andaccessing information from a database application that executes onanother device.

FIG. 5A provides a logical depiction of how configuration items can bediscovered, as well as how information related to discoveredconfiguration items can be stored. For sake of simplicity, remotenetwork management platform 320, third-party networks 340, and Internet350 are not shown.

In FIG. 5A, CMDB 500 and task list 502 are stored within computationalinstance 322. Computational instance 322 may transmit discovery commandsto proxy servers 312. In response, proxy servers 312 may transmit probesto various devices, applications, and services in managed network 300.These devices, applications, and services may transmit responses toproxy servers 312, and proxy servers 312 may then provide informationregarding discovered configuration items to CMDB 500 for storagetherein. Configuration items stored in CMDB 500 represent theenvironment of managed network 300.

Task list 502 represents a list of activities that proxy servers 312 areto perform on behalf of computational instance 322. As discovery takesplace, task list 502 is populated. Proxy servers 312 repeatedly querytask list 502, obtain the next task therein, and perform this task untiltask list 502 is empty or another stopping condition has been reached.

To facilitate discovery, proxy servers 312 may be configured withinformation regarding one or more subnets in managed network 300 thatare reachable by way of proxy servers 312. For instance, proxy servers312 may be given the IP address range 192.168.0/24 as a subnet. Then,computational instance 322 may store this information in CMDB 500 andplace tasks in task list 502 for discovery of devices at each of theseaddresses.

FIG. 5A also depicts devices, applications, and services in managednetwork 300 as configuration items 504, 506, 508, 510, and 512. As notedabove, these configuration items represent a set of physical and/orvirtual devices (e.g., client devices, server devices, routers, orvirtual machines), applications executing thereon (e.g., web servers,email servers, databases, or storage arrays), relationshipstherebetween, as well as services that involve multiple individualconfiguration items.

Placing the tasks in task list 502 may trigger or otherwise cause proxyservers 312 to begin discovery. Alternatively or additionally, discoverymay be manually triggered or automatically triggered based on triggeringevents (e.g., discovery may automatically begin once per day at aparticular time).

In general, discovery may proceed in four logical phases: scanning,classification, identification, and exploration. Each phase of discoveryinvolves various types of probe messages being transmitted by proxyservers 312 to one or more devices in managed network 300. The responsesto these probes may be received and processed by proxy servers 312, andrepresentations thereof may be transmitted to CMDB 500. Thus, each phasecan result in more configuration items being discovered and stored inCMDB 500.

In the scanning phase, proxy servers 312 may probe each IP address inthe specified range of IP addresses for open Transmission ControlProtocol (TCP) and/or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) ports to determinethe general type of device. The presence of such open ports at an IPaddress may indicate that a particular application is operating on thedevice that is assigned the IP address, which in turn may identify theoperating system used by the device. For example, if TCP port 135 isopen, then the device is likely executing a WINDOWS® operating system.Similarly, if TCP port 22 is open, then the device is likely executing aUNIX® operating system, such as LINUX®. If UDP port 161 is open, thenthe device may be able to be further identified through the SimpleNetwork Management Protocol (SNMP). Other possibilities exist. Once thepresence of a device at a particular IP address and its open ports havebeen discovered, these configuration items are saved in CMDB 500.

In the classification phase, proxy servers 312 may further probe eachdiscovered device to determine the version of its operating system. Theprobes used for a particular device are based on information gatheredabout the devices during the scanning phase. For example, if a device isfound with TCP port 22 open, a set of UNIX®-specific probes may be used.Likewise, if a device is found with TCP port 135 open, a set ofWINDOWS®-specific probes may be used. For either case, an appropriateset of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxy servers 312 tocarry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312 logging on, orotherwise accessing information from the particular device. Forinstance, if TCP port 22 is open, proxy servers 312 may be instructed toinitiate a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to the particular device andobtain information about the operating system thereon from particularlocations in the file system. Based on this information, the operatingsystem may be determined. As an example, a UNIX® device with TCP port 22open may be classified as AIX®, HPUX, LINUX®, MACOS®, or SOLARIS®. Thisclassification information may be stored as one or more configurationitems in CMDB 500.

In the identification phase, proxy servers 312 may determine specificdetails about a classified device. The probes used during this phase maybe based on information gathered about the particular devices during theclassification phase. For example, if a device was classified as LINUX®,a set of LINUX®-specific probes may be used. Likewise, if a device wasclassified as WINDOWS® 2012, as a set of WINDOWS®-2012-specific probesmay be used. As was the case for the classification phase, anappropriate set of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxyservers 312 to carry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312reading information from the particular device, such as basicinput/output system (BIOS) information, serial numbers, networkinterface information, media access control address(es) assigned tothese network interface(s), IP address(es) used by the particular deviceand so on. This identification information may be stored as one or moreconfiguration items in CMDB 500.

In the exploration phase, proxy servers 312 may determine furtherdetails about the operational state of a classified device. The probesused during this phase may be based on information gathered about theparticular devices during the classification phase and/or theidentification phase. Again, an appropriate set of tasks may be placedin task list 502 for proxy servers 312 to carry out. These tasks mayresult in proxy servers 312 reading additional information from theparticular device, such as processor information, memory information,lists of running processes (applications), and so on. Once more, thediscovered information may be stored as one or more configuration itemsin CMDB 500.

Running discovery on a network device, such as a router, may utilizeSNMP. Instead of or in addition to determining a list of runningprocesses or other application-related information, discovery maydetermine additional subnets known to the router and the operationalstate of the router's network interfaces (e.g., active, inactive, queuelength, number of packets dropped, etc.). The IP addresses of theadditional subnets may be candidates for further discovery procedures.Thus, discovery may progress iteratively or recursively.

Once discovery completes, a snapshot representation of each discovereddevice, application, and service is available in CMDB 500. For example,after discovery, operating system version, hardware configuration andnetwork configuration details for client devices, server devices, androuters in managed network 300, as well as applications executingthereon, may be stored. This collected information may be presented to auser in various ways to allow the user to view the hardware compositionand operational status of devices, as well as the characteristics ofservices that span multiple devices and applications.

Furthermore, CMDB 500 may include entries regarding dependencies andrelationships between configuration items. More specifically, anapplication that is executing on a particular server device, as well asthe services that rely on this application, may be represented as suchin CMDB 500. For instance, suppose that a database application isexecuting on a server device, and that this database application is usedby a new employee onboarding service as well as a payroll service. Thus,if the server device is taken out of operation for maintenance, it isclear that the employee onboarding service and payroll service will beimpacted. Likewise, the dependencies and relationships betweenconfiguration items may be able to represent the services impacted whena particular router fails.

In general, dependencies and relationships between configuration itemsmay be displayed on a web-based interface and represented in ahierarchical fashion. Thus, adding, changing, or removing suchdependencies and relationships may be accomplished by way of thisinterface.

Furthermore, users from managed network 300 may develop workflows thatallow certain coordinated activities to take place across multiplediscovered devices. For instance, an IT workflow might allow the user tochange the common administrator password to all discovered LINUX®devices in a single operation.

In order for discovery to take place in the manner described above,proxy servers 312, CMDB 500, and/or one or more credential stores may beconfigured with credentials for one or more of the devices to bediscovered. Credentials may include any type of information needed inorder to access the devices. These may include userid/password pairs,certificates, and so on. In some embodiments, these credentials may bestored in encrypted fields of CMDB 500. Proxy servers 312 may containthe decryption key for the credentials so that proxy servers 312 can usethese credentials to log on to or otherwise access devices beingdiscovered.

The discovery process is depicted as a flow chart in FIG. 5B. At block520, the task list in the computational instance is populated, forinstance, with a range of IP addresses. At block 522, the scanning phasetakes place. Thus, the proxy servers probe the IP addresses for devicesusing these IP addresses, and attempt to determine the operating systemsthat are executing on these devices. At block 524, the classificationphase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determine the operatingsystem version of the discovered devices. At block 526, theidentification phase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determinethe hardware and/or software configuration of the discovered devices. Atblock 528, the exploration phase takes place. The proxy servers attemptto determine the operational state and applications executing on thediscovered devices. At block 530, further editing of the configurationitems representing the discovered devices and applications may takeplace. This editing may be automated and/or manual in nature.

The blocks represented in FIG. 5B are for purpose of example. Discoverymay be a highly configurable procedure that can have more or fewerphases, and the operations of each phase may vary. In some cases, one ormore phases may be customized, or may otherwise deviate from theexemplary descriptions above.

V. Integration Management of Remote Services

The embodiments herein provide an integrated and extensible frameworkfor obtaining per-userid utilization of remote services, and identifyingspecific userids that are candidates for removal or suspension due tolack of activity. Using this framework, support for accessing andevaluating remote services can be rapidly added to a remote networkmanagement platform. In this fashion, an enterprise can reduce wastedresources and more proactively manage its users' access to these remoteservices.

A. Enterprise Use of Remote Services

FIG. 6 depicts an example architecture 600 arranged to facilitate theembodiments herein. As shown in FIG. 6, remote network managementplatform 320 contains computational instance 322, and computationalinstance 322 manages or is otherwise associated with managed network300.

It is assumed that managed network 300 is controlled by an enterprise ora similar entity that uses remote services. These include file sharingservice 602, workflow and transaction management service 604, andenterprise resource planning (ERP) service 606. In some embodiments,managed network 300 may use fewer than three or more than three suchremote services.

Each of the remote services may be hosted independently and separatelyfrom remote network management platform 320 and managed network 300.Thus, remote network management platform 320 and managed network 300 mayaccess the remote services by way of the Internet or another type ofwide-area network.

Managed network 300 may have enterprise-grade access to some or all ofthe remote services. This involves managed network 300 establishing amaster userid (and associated credentials, such as a password) with aremote service. Through this master userid, managed network 300 maycreate, remove, suspend, manage permissions of, and review activityrelated to individual userids. In other words, individual users (e.g.,employees of managed network 300) may each have a unique individualuserid with which to access and use the remote service. These individualuserids are managed and controlled by the master userid.

For example, managed network 300 may establish a master userid for filesharing service 602. With it, managed network 300 may create a number ofindividual userids on file sharing service 602 and distribute theseuserids to employees of managed network 300 that need or could benefitfrom use of this remote service. In FIG. 6, the dotted lines betweenmanaged network 300 and file sharing service 602, managed network 300and workflow and transaction management service 604, and managed network300 and ERP service 606 indicate that managed network 300 may directlycommunicate with such remote services.

A remote service may charge a managed network a certain amount perindividual userid (e.g., $5, $10, $15, etc.) on a regular basis (e.g.,monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.). Furthermore, inactive userids maybecome a target for hackers or other actors to gain illicit access tothe managed network's data. Thus, it is beneficial for managed network300 to be able to determine whether and how much each individual useridis being used, and to delete, remove, suspend, and/or reclaim any suchuserids that have not been used for some pre-determined period of time(e.g., 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, etc.). Herein, the terms “remove”and “reclaim” may be used synonymously unless context suggestsotherwise.

But making these activity determinations directly from managed network300 is complicated and unwieldy, as it requires that someone withauthority to use the master userids periodically access each remoteservice and perform an audit of userid utilization. In some cases, theremote service might not report all types of activity involving theindividual userids in a way that can easily be reviewed, resulting inmanaged network 300 removing userids that are not inactive.

The embodiments herein centralize access to one or more remote servicesby way of a computational instance on a remote network managementplatform. For example, managed network 300 may configure computationalinstance 322 or remote network management platform 320 with masteruserids and/or associated credentials to access file sharing service602, workflow and transaction management service 604, and ERP service606. In this way, computational instance 322 can access these remoteservices on behalf of managed network 300 (as shown by the solid linesbetween computational instance 322 and file sharing service 602,computational instance 322 and workflow and transaction managementservice 604, and computational instance 322 and ERP service 606).Computational instance 322 may determine the most-recent activity timeof each individual userid, and present this information in an easy tounderstand graphical user interface dashboard.

In particular, the most-recent activity time determination may be anintricate procedure that is different for various remote services, andmay involve reviewing raw log files for these remote services. But withthis information, computational instance 322 may obtain a more accurateview of individual userid activity, and may suggest one or more useridsas candidates for removal or suspension from the remote service due toinactivity.

When an individual userid is suspended from the remote service, relevantfiles, configurations, and/or other information associated with theindividual userid may be maintained, but access to the individual useridmay be blocked. Furthermore, managed network 300 might not be chargedfor suspended individual userids. When an individual userid is removedfrom the remote service, computational instance 322 may copy relevantfiles, configurations, and/or other information from the individualuserid to the master userid, and then delete the individual userid. Inthis way, any data related to the individual userid is preserved.

B. Computational Instance Access to Remote Services

In order to grant a computational instance access to master userids ofremote services, as represented by the solid lines in FIG. 6, some formof authentication may take place between the computational instance andeach of the remote services. Assuming that a master userid is associatedwith a password, the managed network may provision the computationalinstance with these credentials for the remote services.

Alternatively, a different authentication technique that does not exposethe master userid and password to the computational instance may beemployed. For example, an OAuth-based mechanism can be configured onboth the computational instance and a remote service (this configurationrequires agreement between the entities controlling the computationalinstance and the remote service to allow such authentication). Thisresulting mechanism allows the computational instance to access certaininformation on the remote service that is associated with the masteruserid. In particular, the computational instance and remote service mayshare an access token that is only known to these two entities and canbe used only to allow the computational instance to access (without themaster userid or password) a pre-defined set of information stored on oravailable to the remote service.

The access token may be generated when a user of the managed networkrequests that the computational instance access the remote service. Thecomputational instance may open a window or other interface to theremote service, this interface prompting entry of the master userid andpassword. Once the remote service authenticates these credentials, itmay explicitly ask the user if he or she wishes the computationalinstance to access the remote service. In some cases, the user mayindicate that the computational instance can only access a subset of thedata on the remote service.

Regardless of the exact permissions granted, the computational instancemay request an access token from the remote service, and the remoteservice may generate and provide this token to the computationalinstance. At this point, the computational instance can use the token torequest, from the remote service, data associated with the masteruserid. The computational instance may be able to, depending on thepermissions granted to it, write or modify such data.

In some embodiments, other sequences of events or message flows may beable to establish an appropriate trust relationship between thecomputational instance and the remote service. Furthermore, theauthentication mechanism of each remote service may be configuredindependently.

To enable such a configuration, the computational instance may promptthe user of the managed network to enter the appropriate configurationinformation for a remote service. This may be accomplished by way of aweb page or series of web pages hosted by the computational instance.

FIG. 7 depicts such a web page 700. This web page facilitates OAuthconfiguration between the computational instance and a file sharingservice. In particular, a user of the managed network, such as anadministrator of userids for the file sharing service, may use URL 701to access web page 700 on the computational instance.

Web page 700 may contain several panes. For example, authentication pane702 may allow the user to select one of two or more authenticationtechniques. In FIG. 7, two such authentication techniques are shown,standard OAuth and OAuth using a JSON web token (JWT). The solid linearound the description of standard OAuth indicates that standard OAuthis currently selected, and the dotted line around and grayed-out text ofOAuth with JWT indicates that OAuth with JWT is not selected.

Scopes pane 704 defines various types of access permissions that are tobe shown on the OAuth consent screen when the user grants thecomputational instance access to the master userid on the file sharingservice. These scopes are shown as being individually selectable by wayof checkboxes. The scopes include the ability to read from all files andfolders, the ability to write to all files and folders, the ability tomanage users (e.g., add userids, delete userids, change permissions foruserids, etc.), the ability to manage groups of users (e.g., creategroups for userids with some common characteristics, change the membersof such groups, and/or delete such groups), the ability to managewebhooks (e.g., customized HTTP callbacks), and the ability to managereclamation policies (e.g., when and how userids are to be suspended orremoved).

Endpoints pane 706 define URLs through which the computational instancecan cause the file sharing service to perform certain activities inaccordance with scopes 704. These URLs may be representational statetransfer (REST) endpoints, and when accessed may cause a script toexecute that carries out a predefined tasks. As shown in endpoints 706,URLs may exist for retrieving a list of individual userids associatedwith the master userid, determining the most-recent activity of theseindividual userids, suspending a userid, changing the role to a userid(e.g., remotely accessing the file sharing service as a particularindividual userid rather than the master userid), transferring files toanother userid, and deleting a userid. Each of these URLs may bepre-determined for the file sharing service, and in some cases may beeditable by way of web page 702.

Finished button 708 would typically be pressed, clicked on, or otherwiseactivated when the user is satisfied with the configuration as shown onweb page 700. For instance, doing so could cause the computationalinstance to begin automatically managing userids on the file sharingservice in accordance with the discussion below.

Notably, the graphical user interface of FIG. 7 is just one example ofhow such an interface can be arranged. Other arrangements are possible.

C. Remote Access Activities

Each remote service for which the computational instance is grantedaccess may be associated with a scheduled job (implemented using, e.g.,one or more scripts) that obtains a list of individual userids for theremote service and/or determines the most-recent activity times of each.The scheduled job may execute periodically or randomly. Periodicexecutions may take place, for example, once per day, once per week, oronce per month. Randomly scheduled executions may be configured toexecute according to a random variable with an expected value of, forexample, once per day, once per week, or once per month (e.g., accordingto an exponentially-distributed random variable with an expected valueof 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month, etc.). Randomly scheduled executions mayalternatively be configured to take place at a random time within apre-determined window of time (e.g., an execution may take place onceper day at a random time uniformly-distributed over the hours of theday). Randomly scheduled jobs have the advantage of spreading out theload on the remote service (e.g., decreasing the likelihood thatmultiple jobs are scheduled to access the same remote service at thesame time), especially if multiple computational instances of a remotenetwork management platform are configured to access the remote service.

In any case, when the scheduled job for a particular computationalinstance executes, it may use the configuration for the remote serviceto access the remote service. For the example file sharing servicedescribed in the context of FIG. 7, the computational instance may usethe authentication mechanism configured in authentication pane 702 toaccess the file sharing service. Then, the computational instance mayobtain a list of the individual userids by way of the URL configured to“retrieve individual userids” in endpoints 706. Furthermore, thecomputational instance may, by way of the URL configured to “determinemost-recent activity” in endpoints 706, obtain either an indication ofthe most-recent activity of one or more of the userids, or obtain anevent list that can be used to determine the most-recent activity of oneor more of the userids.

For example, some remote services may provide one or more REST APIsthrough which the most-recent activity time of one or more userids maybe obtained. These most-recent activity times may represent the lasttime that the userid logged on or logged off the remote service. But forsome types of remote services (e.g., file sharing services), certainactivities involving a userid and the remote service may take placewithout the userid explicitly logging in to the remote service. Inparticular, when a userid uploads one or more files to a file sharingservice, downloads one or more files from a file sharing service, ordeletes a file stored on the file sharing service, this activity may notbe recorded as the userid logging on to the file sharing service.

Consequently, just considering logging on or logging off a remoteservice might not provide an accurate view of a userid's use of thatservice. Notably, if other activities are ignored, some userids may beconsidered to have so little recent utilization that they are marked forremoval, even if they are being heavily used for file transfers.

Accordingly, for some remote services, it may be beneficial to obtain acopy of at least part of an event log accessible by way of one or moreREST APIs. For example, endpoints 706 includes a URL for obtainingmost-recent activity, and this URL may represent a REST API that, whenaccessed, provides at least part of an event log. The event log mayinclude entries for each activity taken by each individual useridmanaged by the master userid. Alternatively, REST endpoints may beparameterized by userids to return events only involving a specificuserid. Furthermore, APIs using mechanisms other than REST may be used.

As an example, the URL https://www.example-fs.com/ref#get-events mightreturn a list of all events for each individual userid managed by themaster userid. On the other hand, the URLhttps://www.example-fs.com/ref#get-events/{uid}, where {uid} is aparameter, might return only events involving the userid specified bythe parameter. Regardless, the requested events may be returned in aJSON payload, which can then be parsed by the computational instance.

An example is shown in FIG. 8. Event log snapshot 800 depicts an eventlog from a file sharing service. As indicated in FIG. 8, the format ofevent log snapshot 800 is a unique event identifier (<event id>),followed by a timestamp of when the event occurred (<timestamp>),followed by a userid that performed the event (<userid>), followed by adescription of the activity involved in the event (<activity>), followedby a name of the file or directory that the event acted upon (<file ordirectory>). But this format is just for purpose of example, and otherformats could be used.

In event log snapshot 800, event id 10017 took place on Nov. 5, 2018 at7:32 PM, and involved userid alice editing a file named expenses.xls.Similarly, event id 10015 took place on Nov. 5, 2018 at 4:09 PM, andinvolved userid bob deleting a directory named PDF (the forward slash atthe end of the <file or directory>field may indicate a directory whilethe lack thereof may indicate a file). Many other types events arepossible, and the ellipsis at the bottom of event log snapshot 800indicates that it may continue for at least some number of additionalentries. In some situations, an event log may contain thousands ofentries or more.

Regardless, from such an event log a computational instance can moreaccurately determine the most-recent activity time of each userid. Forevent log snapshot 800, the most-recent activity time of alice is Nov.5, 2018 at 7:32 PM, the most-recent activity time of bob is Nov. 5, 2018at 4:09 PM, and the most-recent activity time of chris is Nov. 5, 2018at 3:39 PM. These determinations can be made by scanning the event logfor the most-recent entry for each userid, and obtaining thecorresponding timestamps.

D. Removal of Inactive Userids

As noted above, the computational instance may determine the most-recentactivity times for one or more userids managed by the master userid andthen provide this (and possibly other) information to the user. Thecomputational instance may do so by way of a web interface or some othermechanism (e.g., email or a dedicated application).

FIG. 9 depicts web page 900 with activity and other information for alist of individual userids. Web page 900 displays the userids in a table902, which includes columns for: a name 906 of a user associated withthe userid, the userid 908, the determined most-recent activity time 910of the userid, the storage used 912 by the userid, whether the userid isa removal candidate 914, and buttons 916 to manually remove userids. Insome embodiments, table 902 may contain more or less information.

Text box 904 may act as a filter for information displayed in table 902.For example, when a term is entered in text box 904, table 902 may beadjusted to only display entries for userids that partially or fullymatch the term. Alternatively or additionally, entries for names thatpartially or fully match the term may be displayed.

The determined most-recent activity time 910 for each userid may becalculated based on when the userid has most-recently logged in or outof the file sharing service. Alternatively, the determined most-recentactivity time 910 may be based on parsing an event log as describedabove.

The removal candidate 914 column indicates whether each userid iscandidate for removal from the file sharing service. Such candidates aregenerally userids that have been inactive or otherwise have not used theremote service for a user-configurable period of time or apre-determined period of time. This period of time may be 1 month, 3months, 6 months, 12 months, or some other value. In the example of FIG.9, the pre-determined period of time is 3 months. Thus, given that thecurrent time is Nov. 1, 2018 at 9:30 AM (as shown in the upper rightcorner of web page 900), the userids candrews, dgeorge, and hcabbel arecandidates for removal because their most-recent activity times are morethan 3 months before the current time.

In addition to being able to manually remove userids regarding ofactivity by way of buttons 916, the user may be able to remove allcandidates for removal by pressing, clicking on, or otherwise activatingremove all candidates button 918. Doing so in the scenario depicted inFIG. 9 would result in userids candrews, dgeorge, and hcabbel beingremoved. In some embodiments, FIG. 9 may also display an amount of moneysaved by the managed network (e.g., per month, per-quarter, or per-year)if the candidate userids are removed.

As noted previously, the information displayed on web page 900 may beobtained by a scheduled job that executes periodically or randomly, forexample. Thus, what is seen on web page 900 may represent the state ofuserids when the job was most-recently executed, not at the time thatweb page 900 was requested. In some embodiments, web page 900 mayinclude a button or other control (not shown) that manually initiatesthe job to execute and provides its results.

Although it is not shown in FIG. 9, columns for indicating whether auserid is a candidate for suspension and/or manually suspending useridsmay be included in table 902. These columns may appear instead of or inaddition to the columns for whether the userid is a removal candidate914, and buttons 916 to manually remove userids.

When a userid is removed (reclaimed), some or all files, configurationinformation, and/or other data associated with the userid may betransferred to the master userid. This is so that valuable informationassociated with the removed userid is not lost. In some embodiments, ascript specific to the relevant remote service may execute. This scriptmay obtain files, configuration information, and/or other dataassociated with the userid, place this material in an archive (e.g., acompressed zip file), and move the archive to the master userid beforedeleting the userid. For example, when a userid on a file sharingservice is removed, the directory structure of the userid's files anddirectories may be archived in a zip file, the zip file may be namedappropriately (e.g., the userid and the current time may be included inthe file name), and then moved to the master account for storage. Butother possibilities exist.

E. Remote Services Integration Framework

The computational instance may implement the embodiments herein as aconfigurable framework that allows users of the managed network toeasily add and customize integrations with new remote services. Forexample, each remote service may be defined with a particular scope(e.g., as defined by scopes 704 or a similar mechanism) and may beassociated with one or more scripts that carry out integrationfunctions.

In particular, each integration may include scripts for authentication,downloading userid information, calculating most-recent activity timesof userids, removing userids, creating a scheduled job, and creatingreports. An example of this framework is shown in FIG. 10.

In FIG. 10, routing table 1000 includes entries for three remoteservices: file sharing service 602, workflow and transaction managementservice 604, and ERP service 606. In some cases, routing table 1000 mayinclude more or fewer entries.

Each entry is associated with a scope that defines what information thatthe computational instance has access to and possibly the nature of thataccess (e.g., read, write, create, delete, etc.). For example, filesharing service 602 has scope A, workflow and transaction managementservice 604 has scope B, and ERP service 606 has scope C. As noted abovein the discussion of example scope 704, an administrator of the managednetwork may customize the scope for each remote service.

Each entry is also associated with one or more scripts. For example,file sharing service 602 is associated with scripts 1002, workflow andtransaction management service 604 is associated with scripts 1004, andERP service 606 is associated with scripts 1006. The scripts may includecommon function definitions across all remote services so that theinterfaces to these functions are similar or the same. For example, theinterface may be designed in an object-oriented fashion where thefunctions are defined in a base class or an abstract class, butimplemented in a child class.

These functions may include: authentication( ) to establish anauthentication mechanism between the computational instance and theremote service, download_userid_info( ) to retrieve information onuserids from the remote service, calculate activity( ) to determinewhich userids are inactive according to criteria specific to the remoteservice, remove userid( ) to remove a userid( ) from the remote service,create_job( ) to define a scheduled job that will obtain user activityfrom the remote service from time to time, and create reports( ) toexecute a report related to the userids on the remote service.

Common framework 1008 may define general operations and data structuresfor some or each of these functions. For example, common framework 1008may define the configuration and processing of an OAuth endpoint in itsauthentication( ) function. Then, the authentication( ) function ofscripts 1002 may define which OAuth options and parameters are to beused when communicating with file sharing service 602. Likewise, theauthentication( ) function of scripts 1004 may define which OAuthoptions and parameters are to be used when communicating with workflowand transaction management service 604.

This framework makes it simpler to integrate new remote services withthe computational instance. For example, the calculate_activity( )function can be used for the new remote service to determine whichuserids are inactive in a fashion that is specific to the new remoteservice (e.g., based on most-recent login times or based on an eventlog, for example). Since, in possible scenarios, some or allintegrations will involve calling a function named calculate_activity( )even if those functions perform different operations the program code toprovide the integrations is simplified.

VI. Example Operations

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating an example embodiment. The processillustrated by FIG. 11 may be carried out by a computing device, such ascomputing device 100, and/or a cluster of computing devices, such asserver cluster 200. However, the process can be carried out by othertypes of devices or device subsystems. For example, the process could becarried out by a portable computer, such as a laptop or a tablet device.

The embodiments of FIG. 11 may be simplified by the removal of any oneor more of the features shown therein. Further, these embodiments may becombined with features, aspects, and/or implementations of any of theprevious figures or otherwise described herein.

Block 1100 may involve accessing, by way of a common authenticationconfiguration and a particular individual authentication configuration,a master userid of a particular remote service of a plurality of remoteservices, where the master userid is associated with a managed network,and where one or more databases of the computing system contain datadefining: the common authentication configuration for the plurality ofremote services, and individual authentication configurations for eachof the remote services.

Block 1102 may involve receiving, from the particular remote service, alist of userids that are registered to the managed network and that areconfigured to use the particular remote service.

Block 1104 may involve receiving, from the particular remote service,access data representing use of the particular remote service by theuserids.

Block 1106 may involve determining, from the access data, most-recentaccess times of the userids, where the most-recent access timesrespectively define when the userids were last used to access theparticular remote service.

Block 1108 may involve storing, in the one or more databases,representations of the most-recent access times of the userids.

In some embodiments, determining, from the access data, the most-recentaccess times of the userids involves determining when each of theuserids last logged on the particular remote service or last logged offof the particular remote service.

In some embodiments, the access data includes log data representingtransactions involving the particular remote service for each of theuserids. Determining the most-recent access times of the userids mayinvolve determining most-recent of the transactions for each of theuserids.

In some embodiments, the transactions include one or more of: logging onor logging off of the particular remote service, a file transfer to orfrom the particular remote service, or editing or deletion of a filestored on the particular remote service.

In some embodiments, the common authentication configuration defines ageneric type of authentication mechanism, where the individualauthentication configurations define service-specific authenticationconfigurations for each of the remote services, and where theservice-specific authentication configurations for each of the remoteservices include authentication credentials for each of the remoteservices.

In some embodiments, the individual authentication configurations alsodefine a set of permissions granted to the master userid when the masteruserid accesses the particular remote service by way of thecomputational instance.

In some embodiments, the one or more server devices are furtherconfigured to: (i) possibly based on the most-recent access times of theuserids, identify one or more of the userids that have not been used forat least a pre-defined threshold periodic of time, and (ii) indicatethat the one or more identified userids are candidates for removal fromthe particular remote service. Additionally, the one or more serverdevices may be further configured to: (i) receive a confirmation, by wayof the master userid, to remove the one or more identified userids fromthe particular remote service, and (ii) possibly in response toreceiving the confirmation, (a) move files or configuration informationstored on the particular remote service in association with the one ormore identified userids to be associated with the master userid, and (b)remove the one or more identified userids from the particular remoteservice.

In some embodiments, the particular remote service is associated with arandomly scheduled job that accesses the master userid, receives thelist of userids, and receives the access data.

In some embodiments, the data contained in the one or more databasesalso includes one or more scripts associated with the particular remoteservice, where determining the most-recent access times of the useridsinvolves executing at least one of the one or more scripts.

In some embodiments, a further particular remote service of the remoteservices is associated with a further particular individualauthentication configuration of the individual authenticationconfigurations, and the one or more server devices are furtherconfigured to: (i) access, by way of the common authenticationconfiguration and the further particular individual authenticationconfiguration, a further master userid at the further particular remoteservice, (ii) receive, from the further particular remote service, alist of further userids that are registered to the managed network andthat are configured to use the further particular remote service, (iii)receive, from the further particular remote service, further access datarepresenting use of the further particular remote service by the furtheruserids, (iv) determine, from the further access data, furthermost-recent access times of the further userids, where the furthermost-recent access times respectively define when the further useridswere last used to access the further particular remote service, and (v)store, in the one or more databases, further representations of thefurther most-recent access times of the further userids.

VII. Conclusion

The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particularembodiments described in this application, which are intended asillustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations canbe made without departing from its scope, as will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuseswithin the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those describedherein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoingdescriptions. Such modifications and variations are intended to fallwithin the scope of the appended claims.

The above detailed description describes various features and operationsof the disclosed systems, devices, and methods with reference to theaccompanying figures. The example embodiments described herein and inthe figures are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments can beutilized, and other changes can be made, without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readilyunderstood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generallydescribed herein, and illustrated in the figures, can be arranged,substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety ofdifferent configurations.

With respect to any or all of the message flow diagrams, scenarios, andflow charts in the figures and as discussed herein, each step, block,and/or communication can represent a processing of information and/or atransmission of information in accordance with example embodiments.Alternative embodiments are included within the scope of these exampleembodiments. In these alternative embodiments, for example, operationsdescribed as steps, blocks, transmissions, communications, requests,responses, and/or messages can be executed out of order from that shownor discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order,depending on the functionality involved. Further, more or fewer blocksand/or operations can be used with any of the message flow diagrams,scenarios, and flow charts discussed herein, and these message flowdiagrams, scenarios, and flow charts can be combined with one another,in part or in whole.

A step or block that represents a processing of information cancorrespond to circuitry that can be configured to perform the specificlogical functions of a herein-described method or technique.Alternatively or additionally, a step or block that represents aprocessing of information can correspond to a module, a segment, or aportion of program code (including related data). The program code caninclude one or more instructions executable by a processor forimplementing specific logical operations or actions in the method ortechnique. The program code and/or related data can be stored on anytype of computer readable medium such as a storage device including RAM,a disk drive, a solid state drive, or another storage medium.

The computer readable medium can also include non-transitory computerreadable media such as computer readable media that store data for shortperiods of time like register memory and processor cache. The computerreadable media can further include non-transitory computer readablemedia that store program code and/or data for longer periods of time.Thus, the computer readable media may include secondary or persistentlong term storage, like ROM, optical or magnetic disks, solid statedrives, compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), for example. Thecomputer readable media can also be any other volatile or non-volatilestorage systems. A computer readable medium can be considered a computerreadable storage medium, for example, or a tangible storage device.

Moreover, a step or block that represents one or more informationtransmissions can correspond to information transmissions betweensoftware and/or hardware modules in the same physical device. However,other information transmissions can be between software modules and/orhardware modules in different physical devices.

The particular arrangements shown in the figures should not be viewed aslimiting. It should be understood that other embodiments can includemore or less of each element shown in a given figure. Further, some ofthe illustrated elements can be combined or omitted. Yet further, anexample embodiment can include elements that are not illustrated in thefigures.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purpose ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopebeing indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing system, comprising: a processor; anda memory, accessible by the processor and storing instructions that,when executed by the processor, cause the processor to performoperations comprising: accessing, using a master userid, a particularremote service of a plurality of remote services, wherein the particularremote service is hosted outside of a managed network in which thecomputing system is disposed; receiving, from the particular remoteservice: a list of userids that are registered to the managed networkand that are configured to use the particular remote service; and accessdata representing use of the particular remote service by the userids;determining, from the access data, most-recent access times of each ofthe userids, wherein the most-recent access times respectively definewhen the userids were last used to access the particular remote service;identifying one or more of the userids having respective most-recentaccess times that are outside a threshold period of time; and generatinga graphical user interface (GUI) identifying the one or more userids;and receiving, via the GUI, a command to remove at least one of the oneor more userids from the particular remote service.
 2. The computingsystem of claim 1, wherein the command to remove at least one of the oneor more userids from the particular remote service comprises a commandto remove all of the one or more userids from the particular remoteservice.
 3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein removing the atleast one of the one or more userids from the particular remote servicecomprises deleting the at least one of the one or more userids,suspending the at least one of the one or more userids, or reclaimingthe at least one of the one or more userids, or a combination thereof.4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein determining, from the accessdata, the most-recent access times of the userids comprises determiningwhen each of the userids last logged on the particular remote service orlast logged off of the particular remote service.
 5. The computingsystem of claim 1, wherein the access data includes log datarepresenting transactions involving the particular remote service foreach of the userids, and wherein determining the most-recent accesstimes of the userids comprises determining most-recent of thetransactions for each of the userids.
 6. The computing system of claim5, wherein the transactions comprise: logging on or logging off of theparticular remote service, a file transfer to or from the particularremote service, or editing or deletion of a file stored on theparticular remote service, or any combination thereof.
 7. The computingsystem of claim 1, wherein the particular remote service is accessedusing the master userid via a common authentication configuration and aparticular individual authentication configuration of a plurality ofindividual authentication configurations, wherein the commonauthentication configuration defines a generic type of authenticationmechanism, wherein the individual authentication configurations defineservice-specific authentication configurations for each of the pluralityof remote services, and wherein the service-specific authenticationconfigurations for each of the plurality of remote services includesauthentication credentials for each of the plurality of remote services.8. The computing system of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality ofindividual authentication configurations also defines a set ofrespective permissions granted to the master userid when the masteruserid accesses the particular remote service.
 9. The computing systemof claim 1, wherein the operations comprise: receiving a confirmation,by way of the master userid, to remove the at least one of the one ormore userids from the particular remote service; and in response toreceiving the confirmation, (i) moving files or configurationinformation stored on the particular remote service in association withthe at least one of the one or more userids to be associated with themaster userid, and (ii) remove the at least one of the one or moreuserids from the particular remote service.
 10. The computing system ofclaim 1, wherein the particular remote service is associated with arandomly scheduled job that accesses the master userid, receives thelist of userids, and receives the access data.
 11. The computing systemof claim 1, wherein the GUI identifying the one or more useridscomprises, for each of the one or more userids: (i) the most-recentaccess time, (ii) an amount of storage used by the respective userid,(iii) whether the respective userid is a removal candidate, and (iv) anoption to remove the respective userid.
 12. A computer-implementedmethod comprising: accessing, using a master userid, a particular remoteservice of a plurality of remote services, wherein the particular remoteservice is hosted outside of a managed network in which the computingsystem is disposed; receiving, from the particular remote service: alist of userids that are registered to the managed network and that areconfigured to use the particular remote service; and access datarepresenting use of the particular remote service by the userids;determining, from the access data, most-recent access times of each ofthe userids, wherein the most-recent access times respectively definewhen the userids were last used to access the particular remote service;identifying one or more of the userids having respective most-recentaccess times that are outside a threshold period of time; and generatinga graphical user interface (GUI) identifying the one or more userids;and receiving, via the GUI, a command to remove at least one of the oneor more userids from the particular remote service.
 13. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the command to removeat least one of the one or more userids from the particular remoteservice comprises a command to remove all of the one or more useridsfrom the particular remote service.
 14. The computer-implemented methodof claim 12, wherein removing the at least one of the one or moreuserids from the particular remote service comprises deleting the atleast one of the one or more userids, suspending the at least one of theone or more userids, or reclaiming the at least one of the one or moreuserids, or a combination thereof.
 15. The computer-implemented methodof claim 12, wherein the access data includes log data representingtransactions involving the particular remote service for each of theuserids, and wherein determining the most-recent access times of theuserids comprises determining most-recent of the transactions for eachof the userids, wherein the transactions include one or more of: loggingon or logging off of the particular remote service, a file transfer toor from the particular remote service, or editing or deletion of a filestored on the particular remote service.
 16. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 12, comprising: receiving a confirmation, by way of themaster userid, to remove the at least one of the one or more useridsfrom the particular remote service; and in response to receiving theconfirmation, (i) moving files or configuration information stored onthe particular remote service in association with the at least one ofthe one or more userids to be associated with the master userid, and(ii) remove the at least one of the one or more userids from theparticular remote service.
 17. A non-transitory computer-readablemedium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon executionby a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operationscomprising: receiving, from the particular remote service: a list ofuserids that are registered to the managed network and that areconfigured to use the particular remote service; and access datarepresenting use of the particular remote service by the userids;determining, from the access data, most-recent access times of each ofthe userids, wherein the most-recent access times respectively definewhen the userids were last used to access the particular remote service;identifying one or more of the userids having respective most-recentaccess times that are outside a threshold period of time; and generatinga graphical user interface (GUI) identifying the one or more userids;and receiving, via the GUI, a command to remove at least one of the oneor more userids from the particular remote service.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the commandto remove at least one of the one or more userids from the particularremote service comprises a command to remove all of the one or moreuserids from the particular remote service.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein removing the at least oneof the one or more userids from the particular remote service comprisesdeleting the at least one of the one or more userids, suspending the atleast one of the one or more userids, or reclaiming the at least one ofthe one or more userids, or a combination thereof.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, the operationscomprising: receiving a confirmation, by way of the master userid, toremove the at least one of the one or more userids from the particularremote service; and in response to receiving the confirmation, (i)moving files or configuration information stored on the particularremote service in association with the at least one of the one or moreuserids to be associated with the master userid, and (ii) remove the atleast one of the one or more userids from the particular remote service.